Welcome to the 2016/2017 School Year

I’m very excited to be your child’s teacher for the 2016/2017 school year. I am lucky to have such great classes every year!

It has been a quick two weeks of school! Next week will be the start of our third week together as a class. We are starting to dive deeper into the 5th grade curriculum and all the students are up for the challenge of being 5th graders.

Everyday we discuss how having a fixed mindset can truly limit us as human beings. If we say things like “I’m not good at math” you’re establishing a ceiling on your ability. Does a baby who is learning to walk quit when it falls down? Absolutely, not! It continues to fail and fail until it eventually learns to walk. Failure is going to happen. Having a growth mindset permits us to learn from those struggles and develop the grit needed to be successful individuals. Talk to your kids about the importance of developing grit and a growth mindset. It applies to all realms of life, not just education. It’s not that you’re not good at something, it’s that you’re not good at it YET.

Our class uses ClassDojo for classroom management. On ClassDojo I will be tracking positive behaviors and behaviors that we may need to reflect on. On Monday you will get a form so that you can login, as well as students. With your account you will be able to track how well your student is doing every week. Periodically, I will post pictures or videos that can only be seen by parents and or students that are registered in our class.

In the past days students have been introduced to several websites that we will be using throughout the year. You don’t have to keep track of them all. Everything can be found here at our class website. If students have devices at home, that is great but do put a limit on the amount of screen time they have at home. They will get more than enough screen time at school. I’d much rather have students running around outside after school, than inside looking at a screen.

In a few short weeks we will begin Project Lead the Way Launch. Our first module is Robotics. The students and I are very excited to get started. We will also spend time coding online and coding robots. It should be great fun!

This year I have moved my lesson plans to one location: click here – https://goo.gl/wVZjXA or scan there:

Finally, thank you for all your support. I appreciate all the forms that were returned last week. I understand it’s a lot but it’s only once a year.

I hope you have a great weekend. Don’t forget to remind your student to read a good book! Currently we are reading Nine – Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Baskin – @noraraleighB.